Dec
07
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 07-12-2008

Oh look I just made a song:

Someone’s stalking, someone’s stalking
go f*ck yourself, f*ck yourself
find someone else to do it, find someone to do it
i don’t care, i don’t care…

Oct
23
Filed Under (Games) by garette on 23-10-2008 and tagged

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in “Maple Story” raise and manipulate digital images called “avatars” that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

Oct
03
Filed Under (Updates) by garette on 03-10-2008

Hoorah!

May
21
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 21-05-2008

Slate names our favorite office time-waster as most-played game of all time

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What’s the most popular video game ever made? Tetris? Pokemon? The Sims? Nope - according to a Slate article
published this week, it’s Solitaire. Included by default on every
single Windows PC in the world, Solitaire has been a popular diversion
for bored office workers for decades, even causing New York office
worker Ed Greenwood to be fired when city mayor Michael Bloomberg
spotted him playing it on the clock.

And if we’re honest, if we
had bosses like Bloomberg, we’d probably have been fired by now too. A
1994 Washington Post article details Solitaire’s development
motivation: apparently, when designing Windows 3.0, Microsoft execs
wanted to include a simple game that would relax computing newcomers.
What’s more familiar than a pack of cards? The game also provided a
surreptitious way to train users in the click-and-drag concepts
fundamental to the new age of graphical user interfaces without them
feeling patronized or getting bored.

Feb
26
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 26-02-2008

U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft

By Ryan Singel EmailFebruary 22, 2008 | 2:15:43 PMCategories: Spooks Gone Wild   

Virtual_osama_full Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

  • The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.
  • If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.

Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual world environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.

The publicly available report — which was mandated by Congress following earlier concerns over data-mining programs — also mentions several other data-mining initiatives. These include:

  • Video Analysis and Content Extraction - software to automatically identify faces, events and objects in video
  • Tangram - A system that wants to create surveillance and threat warning system that evaluates known threats and finds unknown threats to issue warnings ahead of an attack
  • Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination - This tool is reminiscent of the supposedly-defunct Total Information Awareness program. It seeks to access disparate databases to find patterns of known bad behavior. The program plans to work with domestic law enforcement and Homeland Security.

The report gives no indication why the find-a-terrorist cell in Sims project is called Reynard, though that is a traditional trickster figure in literature.

Photo: CyberExtruder

Via Secrecy News. Full unclassified DNI data mining report (.pdf)

Feb
01
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 01-02-2008

It would be the first time we’d (me and hon) have a character reached the player rankings.

Photo_1

‘grats honey! ^_^

Jan
19
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 19-01-2008

Gamer uses virtual training to save lives

Player of America’s Army used in-games techniques in a rescue situation.

By Ben Silverman
Think playing video
games is little more than a great way to waste time? Then you haven’t
met Paxton Galvanek. Last November, the twenty-eight year-old helped
rescue two victims from an overturned SUV on the shoulder of a North
Carolina interstate. As the first one on the scene, Galvanek safely
removed both individuals from the smoking vehicle and properly assessed
and treated their wounds, which included bruises, scrapes, head trauma
and the loss of two fingers.

His medical background? None - other than what he’s learned playing as a medic in the computer game America’s Army.

The first-person shooter is developed and distributed by the U.S. Army.
Though part of its mission is to promote its military namesake,
America’s Army is a fully-featured game that takes players through a
virtual representation of real-life soldiering, from basic training to
the field of battle. To play as a medic class, players must sit through
extensive medical training tutorials based on real-life classes.

Lucky for the two survivors that Paxton Galvanek didn’t zone out during
the training, as the gamer credits this experience with teaching him
how to handle himself in an emergency situation.

"In the case of this accident, I evaluated the situation and placed
priority on the driver of the car who had missing fingers," he said. "I
then recalled that in section two of the medic training, I learned
about controlled bleeding. I noticed that the wounded man had severe
bleeding that he could not control. I used a towel as a dressing and
asked the man to hold the towel on his wound and to raise his hand
above his head to lessen the blood flow which allowed me to evaluate
his other injuries which included a cut on his head."

By the time help arrived in the form of — ironically enough –
an Army soldier, the individuals were in stable condition and awaiting
the paramedics.

Galvanek’s decisions were lauded by game project director Colonel Casey
Wardynski. "Because of the training he received in America’s Army’s
virtual classroom, Mr. Galvanek had mastered the basics of first aid
and had the confidence to take appropriate action when others might do
nothing. He took the initiative to assess the situation, prioritize
actions and apply the correct procedures… Paxton is a true hero."

According to the developers of America’s Army, this is the
second time one of their users has reportedly applied techniques
learned in the game to real-life emergency situations. You can find
more information about the game at www.americasarmy.com.

Oct
31
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 31-10-2007

Wahehehe
"All the real names of places and people have been altered, abbreviated or alias to protect the innocent. Namely ME!" - Gossip GIrl

Remember the slut from this post?

Yes, she is my topic today. Why you ask? Let’s see…

First, she has a grudge on me, a major one. @_@ I don’t know why so many people are so insecure with me nowadays.

Not only did she tried to make a bad impression for me on my new guild (btw, my AE’s on ANIMEL for the mean time) but she creates senseless rumors without any proof. *sigh*

To you miss ugly slut, get a life, don’t whine when you can’t handle me. You never will. True, people call you pokpok and yes your secret is slowly unveiling.

I have evidences of your slutty actions, just one word from you bitch and I swear hell’s going to break loose and you’ll be sorry you’ve messed with me.

Oh yeah, why are you like that? Is that defensive mechanism or you’re just plain proud you’re f*ckin’ different guys and post it up in an internet? Are you proud of your achievements? Are you happy of f*ckin’ guys for those effin’ stupid items and sets of yours? Oh wait, they’re not yours, they’re your boyfriend’s. Oh wait, your so-called best friend, yay, silly me, those are your gifts after being f*cked, you effin’ ingame prostitute.

As Aesop says, "People grudge on others when they cannot enjoy themselves."

I guess f*ckin’ guys for items isn’t enjoyable enough for you, at least I’m not the one whose gonna have STDs. Poor little girl.

By the way, I didn’t mention any names, this is just plain gossip. If you are in anyway hurt by my posts, I suggest you, don’t come back and get off my effin’ face ugly bitch.

Oct
14
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 14-10-2007

Friendster is being a bitch today… I can’t upload a single photo…

It always says that I’ve reached the maximum limit allotted for uploading photos…

HELLO… wake up… I’ve only had 150 photos in my gallery, that’s 15% of the 1000 photos you are giving each member.

Darn…

Sep
22
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by garette on 22-09-2007

Who_views_meFetch loser…

O rly?

………..

*sigh*